STEPPING UP IN THE RACE FOR A CURE FOR BREAST CANCER

“We were thinking, ‘Gee, what do we know about the Marines and Afghanistan? How are we going to do this?’ ” said Laura Farmer Sherman, executive director of Komen San Diego. “Manuel was a godsend. He just took over. He showed up every single day and worked 10 hours a day and he made it happen. He understood how to bring a team together, he knew how to get materials to far-flung places and how to motivate people in their own language. Camp Leatherneck was the biggest team in the race. They raised $18,000 on their own, and Manuel helped deliver that.”

Five months after that race, Hernandez is still delivering. He comes to Komen three days a week after taking 11-year-old Dakota and 9-year-old Jenna Rain to school, and he stays until it’s time to pick them up. He works in the office and speaks to groups (many of them male-oriented) about what Komen does and how people can help. His mother has been cancer-free for 10 years, but for Manuel Hernandez, the fight is just getting started.

“First of all, there’s no cure yet, so we always need people to help out,” Hernandez said. “My mom is a great story of survival, but I have a daughter. And when I hear that 1 in 8 women is affected by breast cancer, ﻿I think of my daughter and her friends, and that is a little too close to home for me. I love coming here and I love working with other volunteers. It is so great to work with people who all gathering for a common goal.”